---
kind: "section"
citation: "42 U.S.C. § 2000dd–0"
title: "42"
title_heading: "The Public Health and Welfare"
number: "2000dd–0"
heading: "Additional prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/42/2000dd-0"
units:
  - "Chapter 21D — Detainee Treatment"
---

# §2000dd–0. Additional prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment

- (1) **In general—** No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading [treatment](/usc/42/11851.md?p=11) or punishment.
- (2) **Cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment defined—** In this section, the term “cruel, inhuman, or degrading [treatment](/usc/42/11851.md?p=11) or punishment” means cruel, unusual, and inhumane [treatment](/usc/42/11851.md?p=11) or punishment prohibited by the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, as defined in the United States Reservations, Declarations and Understandings to the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Forms of Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading [Treatment](/usc/42/11851.md?p=11) or Punishment done at New York, December 10, 1984.
- (3) **Compliance—** The President shall take action to ensure compliance with this section, including through the establishment of administrative rules and procedures.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 109–366, § 6(c), Oct. 17, 2006, 120 Stat. 2635.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was enacted as part of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, and not as part of the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 which comprises this chapter.